BtoB Tactics

The B2B Tactics session explores the unique marketing needs for business to business marketers moderated by Detlet Johnson of Position Technologies.

First up is Chris from ClearGauge. Who asks, what's different about BtoB? Business to business online marketing is a more considered purchase than consumer marketing.

Differences from consumer marketing:

- Goals of BtoB marketing is to start or develop relationships.
- The emphasis is on different search engines. Focus on major search and business and vertical specific engines.
- Keywords - buying cycle and role based.
- Message -
- Landing pages - The difference in messaging and desired outcomes should be reflected in landing pages.
- Next "date" - Don't rush it. With BtoB you don't "kiss on the first date".
- Tracking ROI - Define measurable goals.

Internet is the first user driven medium. Traditionally, marketers pushed their information out. Search is a pull medium.

Often times you have to filter BtoB prospects from similar consumer or unrelated phrases.

Chris provides a range of PPC considerations for BtoB but I cannot see them and he's speaking very quickly.

Tip for blogging conference sessons: Sit in front of the screen where the Powerpoint slides are displayed. Do not sit on the other side of the podium! I know this, but came in late.

Key pillars of paid search.
1. Find: Keyword research. Find phrases based on the position in the buying cycle and also take into account purchasers and influencers.
2. Engage: Relevance of message to keyword is important as well as landing page relevancy.

Described considerations for effective A/B testing with Google.

Best practice for web site content and site architecture.

Web analytics and measurement are important to ensure you measure what matters.

Lead generation funnels according the type of campaign.

Takeaways:
- Focus on the buying cycle
- Remember it's about prospects not products
- Make sure you measure business objectives

Next up is Paul Slack of WebDex.

BtoB Sales Cylce
- Uncovering the need
Prospects research possible options to create a short list of vendors and from that make a selection.

Influencers.
Example: Had client write white paper on a certain topic. That very specific ranked well and sent visitors to a lead generation process and had a 16% conversion rate.

Developing an Internet marketing strategy - The challenge is that it's not ecommerce, it's getting influencers to opt-in to your buying process.

It's important to define goals and objectives, target audience, conversion activities, budget, measurement and tracking. Provides an example for defining cost per lead, cost per acquisition and the break even.

Remember: Begin with the end in mind.

Chris Grady from Merak is the last one up. Merak evolved from a single mail server product from a bedroom office to an total communications solution with customers world-widel. The marketing success was a result of search engine marketing.

Grady presents some guidelines from the perspective of an in-house marketer.

1. Turn hurdles into opportunities

Sales cycle

- Id a need
seek solutions
comopoile a lsiot
negotiate price
purchase

Merak Hurdle - late to market
Advantage - SEM enabled them to passively take away customers from competition for about 2 years

2. Identify engines and keywords used by potential btob customers

Review content generated by and used by target audience. Also created a custom keyword analysis tool.
Keyword reference guide. Analyze keyword performance data and put it into a reference guide. Distribute that guide to content developers.

3. Keyword targeting successes. From mining data, found that their largest clients found them from very long search queries.

4. Monitor what activies lead to buying. It appears the more interaction between prospects and Merak, the higher the conversion rate.

Going back in time, he would hire a search engine marketing firm. Can't afford it? You can't afford not to. You need to find a firm that is transparent to how they provide the service.

Q: We sell products to both consumers and busineses. Example: DSL. Advise on how to approach that?

A: Paul Slack. Implement a decision process at the landing page to filter the user to consumer/business info.

A: Chris from ClearGuage: Analyze web metrics to see what kinds of language business users tend to use and bid on those phrases.